High Tea, holiday update and colour filled fun

Happy weekend everyone!!

I had returned home from vacation 2 weeks ago but have been hiding, hugging my wonderful holiday memories jealously to myself...hoping to keep a hold of those restful, relaxed and fun filled days in super super New Zealand.

Last week was my first week returning to work and already the overtime hours number onto my second hand. :-( any tips on how to find that wonderfully elusive thing called work-life balance I'd love to hear them!

Enough of that...here's my news for this week... Friday saw Ms empty field and I attend High Tea at the Boronia Tea Rooms in Mosman. We each invited a friend and the four girls enjoyed a delightfully indulgent morning tea which featured finger sandwiches, sophisticated savouries, warm scones with jam and clotted cream, passionfruit macaroons, chocolate dipped strawberries...the list goes on! The younger girls (both of whom are early 20's) are not tea or coffee drinkers so settled on a glass of fizz and an iced chocolate...

There was frivolous discussion as to their dyslexic age...12 or 21? The grown-ups' tea was served in pretty vintage blue floral tea cups and we all felt thoroughly posh taking tea on the verandah of the restored 1840's sandstone mansion. What a lovely way to start a weekend!!

Our recent holiday was a 2 week+ trip to New Zealand. Week one saw us on the North Island travelling the length of the island from Auckland to Wellington with a four day stop in Lake Taupo for some serious fly fishing for Mr empty field and all sorts of fun things for me...zip lining 40m above the ground through pristine New Zealand beech forests in Rotorua....wandering through volcanic gardens with steam vents and geysers...experiencing a totally realistic reenactment of a massive 1876 volcanic eruption at the Rotorua museum...jet boating over 2 inches of water at Huka Falls doing 360's which had you thrown out of your seat and laughing maniacally for the sheer silly fun of it all....sharing my morning tea atop Taranaki Falls on a day hike in the Tongarirro National Park with a rare New Zealand falcon....chatting with a master weaver who explained her craft of weaving the traditional puipui skirts made from the leaves of the flax plant or discussing traditional Maori designs with an apprentice Pounamu (NZ jade) carver and wandering through Cuba Street in Wellington soaking up the urban vibe and the aromas of awesome coffee...

The second week saw us on a 6 day hike along the Greenstone and Routeburn tracks. Leaving Queenstown we were driven to the head of the track outside Glenorchy and then hit the track by 9am. We were blessed with crystal clear skies for the entire time and the wonderful company of our four fellow hikers and two guides.

We crossed the range twice hiking around 18km a day walking through magnificent glacial valleys...brooding moss laden beech forest...alongside a multitude of streams, waterfalls and lakes...though tussock grass plains...amongst delicate alpine orchid gardens...climbing to above the tree line on day 4,5 and 6 and culminating in a rocky scramble along what can only be described as a goat track to the top of Conical Hill at 1515m on the fifth day...a particular challenge for this one, who has a somewhat catatonic fear of edges and heights. Making the top was something very special...actually New Zealand is really someplace special.

We finished the hike on Jan 26 and enjoyed our last night in NZ at buzzy, crazy Queenstown celebrating Australia Day with the pubs and bars still booming out music at 4am...what a party town!!

More fun this morning saw me completing my very first fun run!! The Swisse Color Run came to Sydney to aid HeartKids, a charity aimed at assisting little ones with heart disorders...a cause worthy of throwing off my dislike of crowds....so today I ran, along with 21,000 other Sydneysiders, and had the pleasure of being plastered from head to toe with paint! At each kilometre mark we passed through a colour zone and were sprayed, squirted and daubed with powdered paint, pink then yellow, blue, orange and purple. It was totally fun and totally messy. Mostly it's scrubbed off but there are a few wee stubborn blue stains remaining on face and neck...and the iPhone case has a few green smudges! Ha ha. It was hot, sweaty and very entertaining...by run start at 9am the temperature had climbed to 28 and by finish 40 mins later it was around 30.

Sewing-wise the focus is back to orange peels. Here's an update shot with part of the border set around the centre...slow but steady progress.

Wishing you all a happy start to 2013...my resolution for this year is more fun, how about you?
xx

k